Colorado Attorney General Senior Staff

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman and Deputy Attorneys General

Chief Deputy Attorney General Melanie J. Snyder

Melanie J. Snyder serves as the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Colorado. Melanie oversees the litigation for the State and the legal counsel to all state executive and judicial agencies. She coordinates legal policy and acts as the intergovernmental liaison on behalf of Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman and the Colorado Department of Law.

Melanie joined the Attorney General’s Office in 2008 and has provided general counsel advice and representation in civil litigation and on appeal to a number of state clients on a variety of complex issues. She is a Commissioner on the Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Commission on Professional Development. Prior to being appointed as Chief Deputy, Melanie was Chief of Staff to Attorney General Coffman. She previously served as the Deputy Attorney General of the Revenue & Utilities Section, overseeing the representation of the Department of Revenue, Litigation Staff of the Public Utilities Commission, and the Property Tax Administrator. Before joining the office, Melanie practiced commercial litigation in large and small firms in Denver.

She received her J.D. degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and B.A. degrees in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Arizona. Melanie was born and raised in Arizona but married a Colorado native and together they have two children.

Chief of Staff Leora Joseph

Leora oversees the management of the Colorado Department of Law, including its administration functions as well as its professional development and community engagement initiatives. Leora joined the office in June of 2017.

Prior to serving as Chief of Staff, Leora served as a Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney in the Denver District Attorney’s Office and the Managing Chief Deputy District Attorney in the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Leora has extensive experience in prosecuting cases involving vulnerable victims, including cases of sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence, elder abuse and crimes against those with Intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition to managing units handling sensitive cases, Leora was also appointed by the Governor to serve on the Statewide Child Fatality Review Team.

Leora relocated from Boston to Denver with her family in 2012. In Boston, Leora worked as a prosecutor for the Suffolk County District Attorney for 16 years. There, she served as Chief of the Child Protection Unit and Deputy Chief of the Family Protection and Sexual Assault Unit. Leora has frequently guest lectured at many universities and Law schools, including Harvard. Leora attended McGill University Law School and received her B.A. from Barnard College at Columbia University. She lives in Denver with her husband and three children.

Colorado Solicitor General Frederick R. Yarger

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman appointed Fred Yarger as Solicitor General of Colorado in April 2015.

From 2012 through 2013, Yarger was Assistant Solicitor General for the Office of the Attorney General, working directly with former Solicitor General Daniel D. Domenico to oversee the office’s appellate and constitutional practice. Yarger was previously a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international litigation firm with particular expertise in appellate matters. Earlier in his career, he served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Mark Filip of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and to the Honorable Timothy Tymkovich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Yarger earned a Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was elected to the order of the coif and won awards for legal writing and appellate advocacy. He received his B.A. magna cum laude and with honors from Dartmouth College. He lives in Denver with his wife and two sons.

The Solicitor General supervises and determines legal strategy for appeals cases, as well as select constitutional litigation, handled by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and is counsel of record for the State of Colorado before the United States Supreme Court. He is also responsible for coordinating formal Attorney General Opinions, evaluating requests for Colorado’s participation in litigation as amicus curiae, reviewing and approving proposed regulations from client agencies, supervising the office’s deputy and assistant solicitors general, and approving special assistant attorney general appointments.

Director of Legislative Affairs Jennifer M. Anderson

Jennifer M. Anderson joined the Colorado Attorney General’s Office in December of 2014. Jennifer serves as the Colorado General Assembly’s point of contact for the Department of Law. She is responsible for overseeing the Attorney General’s legislative agenda, as well as all other legislation that impacts the Department of Law.

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s office, Ms. Anderson practiced water and utility law at large regional law firms in Denver and Albuquerque. She served as the Director of Alcohol and Gaming at the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department from 2012-2014. Prior to law school, Jennifer received a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship to South Korea and worked at the New Mexico State Legislature as a policy analyst.

Jennifer has an undergraduate degree from the University of Denver and graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in both Colorado and New Mexico.

Office of the Attorney General
Colorado Department of Law
Ralph L. Carr Judicial Building
1300 Broadway, 10th FloorDenver, CO 80203